(This is part of my journey playing through Gabriel Knight 2: The Beast Within. You can follow the entire series on the Nostalgia Lane page.)

Angry, abandoned, drunk, curious, and morbid, Grace continues her exploration of Rittersberg by banging on the door of the mayor.

She attempts to get files on a werewolf trial (because that’s a totally normal thing to be asking the mayor of this town) but without a specific date, she’s out of luck.

Back up to the castle we go! Grace passes the time walking thinking about all of the different methods of scalping Gerde when she gets there. Perhaps a loom?

Well, this is certainly more exciting than scalping. There’s a stone missing from her fireplace, and Detective First Class Gracie is on the case! More interesting than werewolves, that’s for sure.

By sticking a screwdriver deep into the hole, she unlocks a secret door inside her closet. Where does it go? Please tell me it’s Narnia. Please tell me it’s Narnia.

Well, it’s not Narnia but it is a series of secret passageways between rooms in the castle. Grace goes through it to arrive in Gerde’s bedroom, seething with barely uncontrolled rage at being in the lair of this man-stealer.

Trust me, I’m not exaggerating Grace’s hatred of Gerde. When she opens back up the closet and looks at the clothes, she internally snarks, “Isn’t she as cute as a button?” Beside the clothes is a key — hm, perhaps to that locked door in her bedroom?

Sure enough, more secrets unfold for this tenacious assistant! It’s the supernatural research library from the first game back for more page-turning action.

Grace checks out a book on werewolves with a Deus Ex Envelope tucked nicely inside. I think it’s the same envelope from the prologue, if my memory serves. Looking at the cover here, I’m wondering what “law” covers werewolves. Maybe something to do with that trial?

Gerde catches Grace in the secret library after having stolen her key, dun dun DUN. Instead of being meek and contrite, Grace goes off on Gerde, assailing the German with screams and screeches that have only been previously uttered by dark banshees. She accuses Gerde of sleeping with Gabe in “this Alpine love nest” and barks that she dropped out of school to help Gabe and by GUM, she’s going to be doing the research. Gerde breaks down in tears and leaves the room.

2 thoughts on “Gabriel Knight 2: Grace, undeterred”

Grace was a lot more of a laid back, almost hippie-esqe character in GK1. Sarcastic, sure, but a firm believer in karma and keeping it balanced.
I can only assume that (in the jump to live action) the camera stole most of her soul and she is only gradually regrowing it.